Tuesday, February 23, 2010

I want to use the enlarger lens to make little stuff big. Specifically I want to zoom in on all of the weird looking stuff we eat s much as I can to bring down the curtain. In fact the curtain is usually what makes a lof of what we eat look so weird. Diptychs come to mind but that may be too preachy.

I can only assume this has been done hundreds of times but what hasn't. I've been mulling around with different ideas and hitting up fine arts majors and their lovely supplies of resin to no results though. I'll look for photos to liken what I want to do to but at the worst I may have to turn to "Supersize Me" and "Food Inc."

Sunday, February 21, 2010

I was looking around for inspiration for my assignment and I found this: I want to do school portraits of people from a different decade. I thought it would be good for me since I don't work with models often, it'll give me something different to try.

Friday, February 19, 2010

For this assignment I want to mix landscapes and architecture. I want to go to the Brooksville/Ocala area and shoot the somewhat hilly and beautiful landscape there and incorporate the run down architecture spread throughout the area.

Thursday, February 18, 2010

I've always been fascinated with the things that I've seen abroad. The past four summers I have spent touring various places in Europe. One of the things that really intrigued me about urban life there is the communities ability to combine old and new so successfully! I believe that in order to hold on to our culture and to instill romance in future generations, it is important to have close ties within the past, present and future.

Much of my interest lately has been examining places in and around Sarasota which could mimic this European idea. For example, for my architecture assignment I photographed a subdivision entrance which resembled a vineyard settled in the rolling hills of Chianti. I photographed a small local cafe housed within a structure resembling an old French alley. However, I tried to incorporate things such as modern buildings, roads, cars and people to show a sense of change and progression.

Obviously, these are not the ruins of an 18th century Medici palace, but they could resemble such, and I find that an intriguing topic for photographing. What I would like to do with this project is to take a model (or several) and place them in locations I've scouted which could very easily be an alleyway in Paris. I will be choosing models with close European ancestry and dressing them in contemporary fashions and photographing them in these spaces. Through this, I want to be able to show that like fashion, people and places can successfully change and reinvent themselves.

With these view cameras I've really been enjoying the tilt-shift qualities they enable. I think I would like to shoot these with black and white film utilizing tilts and shifts to give interesting depth of field perspectives.

For this assignment I am making small environments for paper dolls. I have not decided whether I'm doing family photographs or high fashion women in domestic settings. I have both sets of dolls so perhaps I will try both and see how they look... assuming I have the time to cut them all out. A friend suggested I photograph real people, cut them out as I would the paper dolls, and place them in my environments. Though I love that idea, I don't think I'll have the time to pursue it.

I'm running with two different ideas right now. The first being what I wanted to do with my still-life (fish skeletons) but I didn't have the time to execute. The second idea I have would be to continue with architecture. I've noticed that I'll find new areas or places of Sarasota that I've never discovered yet and I stumble upon really quaint houses. Looking at these unique houses makes me feel like I'm in a different place all together. If I pursue this idea I'd love to show that kind of feeling on film.

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

For this project for view camera I was planning on creating miniature environments, and putting people into them. I'm planning on shooting both parts in studio and then later putting the images together in photoshop. I have yet to decide if I'm going to create outdoor landscapes or interiors, but will (time allowing) most likely do one or two of each.

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

For this assignment I believe I am going to shoot a series of portraits with black and white film. Since we have begun learning how to shoot with the view camera I have been eager to shoot portraits with it. I am hoping to be able to obtain some beautiful high quality portraits. And with the ability to play around with the tilts and shifts I feel I will get some unique images.

For my open assignment I want to go back to what got me interested in photography. Trees. I'm slightly obsessed with them and I never use them for a series. Recently I've been very intrigued by tree tops and the shapes they create. In the right light I think its stunning, the pattern against the sky feels like lace to me. I just want to show the delicacy I see.

If you've ever viewed viewed Gregory Crewdson's images, you'd be quick to note the dreamlike quality of his images. Ghostly, lonely moments of transition are no strangers to his lens. I've always been fascinated with the idea of this transitional period in which all humans are neither sleeping, nor awake, and I've been contemplating how to best capture it visually. I've decided to photograph images of models (either all self portraits or just one), completing early morning tasks in states of undress in unfamiliar locations for such tasks. The first image, for example, is of myself in my pajama bottoms, lethargically bringing down my garbage to the curb. However, in my half awake state, I fail to realize that I'm actually descending the back stairs of an abandoned theater. Do I live in this theater, and I'm merely completing an everyday task before sanitation arrives, or am I a misplaced, unknowing passenger of some force, teleported from the world I know and still yet to realize it. I leave this answer to the viewer. I plan on shooting everything in black and white film for total processing control, and to photograph both indoor and outdoor images in order to better portray my point. I'm still debating whether I want the models to be either large or small scale, but I do plan to have the shallow depth of field fall directly onto part or all or of the figure. This is actually what keeps me from answering my question of scale, as the smaller and further away my figure is, the more difficult it is to properly manipulate the bellows without creating excess vignetting.

I plan on shooting and processing at least two images a week, with on image shot either Thursday (my first night off of work all week) or friday (have the majority of the day to shoot), while the other will fall on either Saturday or Sunday. In the event of poor weather or inability to secure location on Thursday, I plan to either shoot a backup idea or the original idea over the weekend. What's most important is that I have both images shot and processed by the following Tuesday to ensure any questions or concerns can be properly addressed during or after class time.

Props are fairly easy to come by for this assignment, as all they require are the garments the models sleep in, and some artifact of daily morning life with which to execute during the image. The nature of the subject's state of post-bedtime dismisses the need for any dramatic makeup or hair, embracing the much more convenient method of either putting the hair up, wrapping it, or leveling it completely disheveled altogether. The props I can garner from my own home, if necessary, but I'd much rather use the exact products or items that the individual models actually make use of in the morning. I'm hoping this decision will aid in convincing the viewer that this moment in time is very real and very intimate, as are most everyone's early morning routine.

I plan on shooting throughout Sarasota on either overcast days or in the early morning. Direct sunlight creates to much harsh contrast with the shadows, but the quality of early morning and diffused sunlight can act quite similar depending on the direction one's facing. I feel both elevate the mood with soft, dissolving shadows and the organic, exposed figures of the models. I'm hoping to use the sky as one giant soft box. This brings up the issue of how to handle the indoor locations, which I'm still trying to figure out.

Monday, February 15, 2010

I suppose I will visit the location I had wished to shoot for the architecture assignment. My rooftop has a flat area I can shoot from. The rest of the roof has broken and grimy tiles. A chimney is also in view from up there. It would most likely be an observation of an area. I suppose the images may or may not work better in black and white, but I don' know how to shoot black and white. I suppose using a calumet with a 90mm lens would be appropriate to capture a larger view of the rooftop.

Sunday, February 14, 2010

If you've heard of Erwin Wurm, you'd probably know of his body of work called: one minute sculptures. These are fun, simple little pieces that are a conglomeration of image, sculpture, as well as performance to evoke a satisfying awkwardness to the viewer of these miniature pieces. Personally, I really get a kick out of them. They strike me as a different kind of staged portrait. I intend to put my own spin on awkwardness as well as the sculpture, and document them with the Viewcamera.

Saturday, February 13, 2010

For this assignment I would like to play with double exposures and photograph landscapes. I was thinking of creating two different views of the same scene on a negative. Something kind of like these examples:I have been debating about shooting this assignment as landscapes with double exposures of people, I would post an example but I didn't really find any that I liked.

For my shooting schedule, I would like to shoot this over the next weekend. This project does not really call for any special equipment, other than the camera itself and it's accessories. I will be shooting on color film and my final print size will be 24"x24".